Losing a camera is like losing a child.

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I was absolutely horrified!
I only stopped in Verona for a day trip, I had just come back from Amsterdam, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and so of course the train passed through gorgeous mountains, and I spent time with some old friends that live in Austria and Liechtenstein, so I took many photos of that... I had been travelling previously for about 2 weeks, so I clearly had about 600 pictures already taken of different European places.
And I lost it. IN PADOVA. I will never look at this town the same way ever again.
I was walking to my hostel in the late afternoon, and I the streets were very packed with people. I had the camera in my bag next to my shoulder, it was in a little open pocket so I could easily pull it out. I had it in Padova because I remember before walking past the busy bus stop, I had it.
But... after the busy bus stop when I stopped to take a picture of some random ruins a few meters below street level, it was gone.

Whoever has travelled through Europe knows that a camera is your best friend. Especially when you are travelling alone and it is all you have to hold the memories. I ended up emptying my bag on the street (probably another dumb idea) and couldn't find it. I was furious, I was sad, I felt like a complete idiot... I retraced my steps and went back to the train station, asked the workers there if a camera had been turned in. They were surprisingly very helpful (I usually don't have luck with polite Italians). The man actually called the Verona train station and the Venice train station (because the train left from Verona and ended in Venice) but they had not seen a camera. I went into 2 stores that I stopped into, and they had not seen it. Of course there was a language barrier, but I think they knew what I was talking about......
and then again, there is also a case of honesty.
Some people can just be nasty and lie to an innocent lonely traveller. Especially when it means that they score a $400 camera plus millions of photos.
I ended up needing to buy another camera. As desperate as I was, I ended up blowing $400 CAN on another camera. The salesman must have felt bad because he threw in a free camera pouch for me. (So I wouldn't lose it again?)
But something happened that showed me that maybe not all people are lying, mean people. I was trying to find my hostel and this sweet fifty-something Italian lady who could speak very little English showed me the way all the way to my hostel.. it was atleast fifteen minutes off the main street where I found her!
I went to the hostel and just stayed in there for the rest of the day. Pouting is not a good way to go, but I hated Padova. I didn't want to go back out there. I felt completely lost without my camera.
I'm sure this has happened to many, many people.
The sun was shining previously before I lost my camera for those 2 weeks. I had awesome, beautiful photos. But it seemed that afterwards, once I got a new camera, it started to rain. It rained in Cinque Terre, when I hiked the whole trail. My hostel mates and I went out for a hike and we promised each other that we would finish the entire hike, in mud and slippery rocks, even.
Florence, OF ALL PLACES, was raining every day. Rainy, rainy, rainy.
Bologna and Milan were cloudy...
Hmm.. I am just realizing now, maybe I should make an entire blog about Italy.

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